2912n From United States of America, joined Oct 2001, 2013 posts, RR: 9 Posted (10 years 5 months 3 weeks 5 days 4 hours ago) and read 1445 times:
Being an American I have had to put up lots of extra security since 9-11. Some of it is well meaning, some of it is stupid. (Security guard telling me that I can't take photos, much less be on airport property without HIS permission. This while being in full police uniform and driving a marked police car....Sigh.)
But the corker for me came the other day, the last day of my UK trip. A Brit friend and I were in the parking lot of London City, the sky had actually cleared a bit with real sunshine coming down on the planes, allowing for some nice photos. A couple of cops walked up and spoke with us for a few minutes. We compared war stories, they wished us well and headed off for the warm terminal. Then the Wicked Witch arrived. She identified herself as the "Director of Public Relations" for LCY and informed us that photography was not allowed at the airport without (A) Permission from the airport authority (available by appointment), and (B) Upon paying a fee to the airport.
We were then told to leave to airport property.
I can understand security issues. I can understand property rights. But this was just plain stupid. And on top of that we had to pay 4 and a half pounds for having used the nearly empty parking lot.
My point is that not only do American airports have silly security ideas and BOYCOT LCY! grrrr. (Well, it sounds good....)
Sukhoi From Sweden, joined May 2006, 371 posts, RR: 9 Reply 5, posted (10 years 5 months 3 weeks 4 days 18 hours ago) and read 1287 times:
Yep sounds like a jobs worth to me too!
K, you can try shooting across the dock from the north but your facing south so the sun can be a problem. Its a great place to shoot though and its public land so they cant through you off it!
Skymonster From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 7, posted (10 years 5 months 3 weeks 4 days 17 hours ago) and read 1283 times:
Sadly, LCY is a privately owned airport (as are quite a number in the UK) so the owners can pretty much decide who they want to let onto their property, and what they will allow those people to do once there. There are at a number of UK airports signs at the vehicle entrances saying words to the effect of "people allowed in here only on legitimate business..." and I guess that means they can regard photography as not legitimate business and ask you to leave.
It does seem to be a bit over-zealous of LCY when the vast majority of other UK airports tollerate photographers, but hey, despite you being driven off by a woman I suspect that the airport suffers from the small d**k syndrome - small d**k, big noise (or rather small airport, big noise).
Don't waste your time there in future - they only have puddle jumpers visit anyway.
EGGD From United Kingdom, joined Feb 2001, 12426 posts, RR: 41 Reply 8, posted (10 years 5 months 3 weeks 4 days 17 hours ago) and read 1268 times:
Yup LCY is very much an extreme case, compared to other airports its alot different, and being an inner-city airport run for mainly business men it is full of assholes.
Scotty From UK - Scotland, joined Dec 1999, 1875 posts, RR: 3 Reply 9, posted (10 years 5 months 3 weeks 3 days 21 hours ago) and read 1190 times:
if you are in a public place, they have no legal right to challenge you if you are not engaging in an activity wihch is in breach of the law. If you cut a hole in the fence and went into a restricted area, then you get what you deserve. There are a lot of cases like this recently and its time that photographers stood their ground. Nobody can move you on from an accessible public area, irespective of what they regard as "legitimate business" whatever that would mean in a legal sense.
Most airports in the UK are tolerant of photographers, althpough not all encourage them. I have had a few run-ins with the "jobs worth" bunch and always successfuly stood my ground and even the police are OK to deal with - once they are happy that you'r not up to anything ,they generally leave you alone, wlthough they may come by every so often to have a look.
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